It`s A Bench-and Throne- For The Family`s Matriarch

November 23, 1988|By Eric Zorn.

Providenza Imburgia would rather have her bus-stop bench than diamonds or gold.

And a beautiful bench it is, right there on the northwest corner of Jackson Boulevard and Des Plaines Avenue in Forest Park, a standing yet ever- changing monument to the 93-year-old matriarch of the Imburgia family.

Once, the back panel said ``My Valentine, to Providenza.`` Another time it said ``Happiness to all, and to Providenza Imburgia,`` next to a painting of two smiley faces. And in the spring once it said, ``Happy Mother`s Day to all mothers, especially Providenza Imburgia.``

Thousands of people pass this advertising bench each morning and evening, coming and going on the buses and sidewalks that lead to the nearby Des Plaines Avenue elevated train station. They see ``Have a nice day, Providenza Imburgia`` and ``Providenza Imburgia, heart of the family,`` and it gives many of them pause.

``I walk my baby by it every day,`` said Aida Jacoby, who lives up the block from Providenza Imburgia`s famous bench. ``I`ve wondered about it extremely.``

Sally Freeman, another neighbor, said, ``I`ve questioned myself about that bench on many occasions, but I`ve never asked anyone about it.``

``We`ve talked about it and been curious here many times,`` said Sharon Cienslak, administrative assistant at the Suburban Cook County Tuberculosis Sanitarium District offices on the opposite corner from the bench. ``It certainly is a cheerful thing at a busy intersection.``

She gained her little measure of celebrity in 1982 when her four children finally ran out of birthday-present ideas.

``When your mother gets up in years, what can you do?`` explained Joseph Imburgia, 64, of Bolingbrook. ``She`s already got everything she needs. We put an ad in the paper for her one year. Then we got her 85 roses on her 85th birthday, but the next year she said she didn`t want 86 roses, they were too hard to care for.``

He said, ``We thought about skywriting or renting a neon `Happy Birthday` sign with a generator to put in front of her house, but we decided on the bench because it was more permanent.``

The first one said ``Happy Birthday, Providenza,`` and included a painting of two roses.

``She was very surprised,`` said daughter Mary Calcagno, 71. ``We drove her past it and she kept reading it and reading it. She said `Oh, that`s me!` ``

It`s not uncommon for people to rent advertising benches or billboards for birthday messages, proposals, apologies or what have you, but a month later the bench usually has a car dealership or hair salon ad on it again, or the familiar ``Rent Me.``

The Imburgia bench, on the other hand, has become something of a landmark. The family has had it repainted numerous times with various expressions of glad tidings. Some, such as the birthday cake with the ``89 and Doing Fine`` slogan, are pretty straightforward. Others, such as the ``Super 88. Mille di questi giorni, Providenza,`` set off an epidemic of head-scratching in Forest Park.

``It means `a million of these days,` `` translated Joseph Imburgia.

He said his mother, who lives alone five blocks away in the same house she has lived in since 1923, used to take pride in going out to see the bench, which she came to think of as belonging to her.

``A crossing guard said to her once, `I wonder who that old lady is they write about on that bench,``` Joseph Imburgia said. ``She told him, `That`s me! That`s my bench.` ``

The bench actually belongs to the Wright Advertising Corp. of Cicero, which rents the facing for $270 for the year with an additional $30 charge to change the message. Office manager Dorothea Kopriva said the company has no other customers who have thought to use a bench for a permanent personal tribute, as the Imburgia`s have.

Today`s salute to Providenza Imburgia is a full-color family tree graphic with 46 first names, all the full-blooded Imburgias in red, their spouses in green and Providenza`s great grandchildren in blue.

At the top of the bench are Providenza and her husband Dominic, a South Water Market fruit peddler who died in 1949. They are both from near Palermo, Italy. She was born Providenza Annarino and immigrated to the United States when she was 12. She and Dominic married in November, 1913, and had four children.

The youngest entry, at the bottom of the bench, is great-granddaughter Emily Regnery, who is 2 months old and has some serious living to do before she rates her own bench.

Providenza Imburgia used to be known for her knitting and crocheting, turning out staggering numbers of sweaters and afghans for relatives and hospitals. But since her son, Phillip Imburgia, died of lung cancer in April at age 65, she has lost interest and hasn`t been herself, Joseph Imburgia said.

She doesn`t get out hardly at all to see her bench anymore. She stays home all day and watches game shows on television, waiting for nightly visits from her children.

But, she said, she is still glad that it is there, and can think of nothing else she would rather have for a gift from her family. Not jewels. Not riches. Especially not roses.

``She doesn`t really need anything anymore but a little love,`` said Joseph Imburgia. ``And maybe a reminder out there that somebody loves her.``